Monday, August 01, 2016

F-35 can't hit a drone?

The Air Force variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter passed another key test days ago, deploying an AIM-9X missile while in flight to hit a drone over a military test range, officials with the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office said.
The test with the F-35A was conducted off the California coast July 28, Joint Program Office spokesman Joe DellaVedova said in a news release.
The Raytheon-made AIM-9X Sidewinder missile was launched from the Lockheed Martin-made aircraft’s external wing in the test. The F-35 was able to complete a series of complex steps to track and target the drone, including identifying the object with mission systems sensors; communicating with the missile; giving the pilot, Air Force Maj. Raven LeClair the change to confirm the targeting information using the high-tech F-35 helmet mounted display, and launching the missile to engage the target, according to the release.
“After launch, the missile successfully acquired the target and followed an intercept flight profile before destroying the drone, achieving the first F-35 Air-to-Air kill or ‘Boola Boola,’ which is the traditional radio call made when a pilot shoots down a drone,” officials said in the release.During the same exercise, LeClair fired an AIM-120C Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM, carried internally, to take out another drone. This was a miss, however, as the drone target was out of visual range.

A beyond visual range missile missed a drone.

The defense journalist said that the miss was because the drone was out of visual range.

And yet you trust the defense media? You believe the Deputy Commandant for the Marine Corps that brags about simulated combat and bullshit deployments to Red Flag while the rest of the Marine Wing burns?F-35 fanboy you need help. Put the crack pipe down and seek medical attention.NOTE: SPUDMAN says that the problem was with the AIM-120 and not the F-35. My question to him is if that's so then how did the F-35 go up against F-16's and wipe the floor with them but can't hit a drone? We're being told about combat simulations that are totally scripted to get a desired result and then that result is being pushed out to defense reporters that don't know the proper questions to ask! The illusion they're selling is that the F-35 is good to go and out of the woods. The fact that they still haven't negotiated Lots 9 & 10 indicate that not only is the price not yet right but neither is the software.